At night, a world entirely different from the day unfolds. When darkness descends and the streets grow quiet, the things that slumbered in daylight awaken and begin to move. The chirping of insects is heard; the smell and texture of the air are felt; trees and buildings appear larger. Whether this is because nonhuman beings become more active at night, or because human senses and emotions grow more sensitive, is uncertain—but one thing is clear: the night is a more mysterious world than the day. There exists a secret realm that only those awake after dark can experience.

《Night Landscape》 presents paintings of nocturnal scenery by two artists, Sejin Park and Hyein Lee, capturing the countless colors, textures, atmospheres, and stories of the night. Both artists share a common interest in reinterpreting the concept of landscape. Each has long developed her own distinctive painterly language and has been recognized for her approach to landscape painting. Yet their methods of perceiving and translating landscape into painting are completely different.

Hyein Lee works outdoors, immersing her whole body in the atmosphere of a given place and time, painting directly on site. Responding not only to the weather, ambience, and chance occurrences of that location, but also to her own physical and psychological state in that moment, she transfers each fleeting instant onto the canvas. Although her approach could be described as “plein-air painting,” it differs from traditional observational painting in that it emphasizes the artist’s subjective experience and interpretation of the scene rather than mere depiction of the object.

In contrast, Sejin Park spends long hours in her studio, seated before a canvas, summoning and tracing the memories and emotions of landscapes she has experienced in the past. Through her deeply personal and fragmentary methods of recollection and association, she carefully draws out not only the specific scenes and settings that remain vivid in her memory, but also the emotions and mental images those moments evoke, layering them upon the canvas. Park’s paintings begin with real landscapes, yet the resulting images are closer to the inner landscapes of the artist herself than to the external world.

This two-person exhibition, showcasing the artists’ representative works of nocturnal scenery, invites viewers to rediscover not only the beauty of “night,” “darkness,” and “landscape,” but also the unique depth and preciousness of the art of painting itself. Let us listen to the stories of the landscapes they encountered on those deep and quiet nights.

References

• 《밤의 풍경 (Night Landscape)》